Zite 2.0: Popular personalized news app unveils new look

If you were already a big fan of personalized news reader app Zite, the likelihood is you’ll be an even bigger fan once you’ve had a chance to experience its all-new look.

Zite 2.0 for iOS devices was rolled out by the company on Tuesday, giving news junkies even more options and control over the content delivered to their screen.

When some apps receive an overhaul, heavy users can be left sweating while they download the new version, wondering if things will ever be quite the same again. Zite addicts need not worry – it’s still intuitive, it’s still fun to use, it’s still a joy to simply look at and most important of all, the content is still as engaging as ever – indicating that the algorithm used by Zite to assess your tastes is still in good shape.

Changes

So what’s new? The logo, for a start, with the old ‘Z’ on a green background having been replaced by the face of a big-eyed owl (much prettier). Once in, you’ll soon see the overall design has been given a subtle but nifty makeover, making it even easier on the eye.

Zite users know all about how you can give each article a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, teaching the app about your article preferences in order that it can serve up more along similar lines – you can still do this while reading the article, but with the iPad version you can now also do it on the contents page by simply swiping up (like) or down (dislike) on the box where the heading and opening lines of the article sit.

Zite said in a blog post Tuesday that the free app now categorizes stories into a colossal 40,000 topics, “allowing you to drill even deeper into your interests and give Zite even more feedback about what you like and don’t like.”

Facebook integration has also been incorporated – alongside Google Reader, Twitter and Pocket – enabling you to link Zite to your Facebook account to get topic suggestions according to your Facebook history.

Your Top Stories has been expanded with the inclusion of more articles, and it’s now possible to change the order of your Quicklist. Before, the order was fixed, meaning that if your most-viewed category was far down the list, you’d have to scroll down to get to it. Not anymore – now you can drag it to the top.

All in all, it’s certainly a pleasing update and should be popular with long-time users as well as those coming to the app for the first time. Android users will unfortunately have to wait for the refresh; iOS users can grab it here (requires iOS 6 or later).